God and the water slide

This morning the kids and I met some friends from church at a local pool for a play date. This pool has an awesome kids area complete with a play set that doubles as a sprinkler/splash pad and slide. You climb up the steps while being splashed all around you and then go down an enclosed slide into the [very shallow] water. From the moment we got there Corrinne was dying to get up to that slide. Over and over she climbed the whole way through all the sprinklers and would get right up to the slide before mean ol' mom would take her back down to the water below as she was kicking and screaming. She was relentless! (I'm telling you - the girl knows what she wants!) After 50 trips up and down the steps with her I finally just gave in and let her go down!

Before you all choke on your coffee (or Mt. Dew, if you're like me) rest assured that I didn't just send her down this huge slide all alone into the water below. My friend, Dena, climbed up as far as she could into the bottom of it and I lowered her down as far as I could so she didn't slide the entire length of the slide. But 11 month old Corrinne went down a slide that kids 8 years older than her were waiting in line for!

At first she loved it! Dena said she her smile took up her whole face, but that smile quickly turned into a look of shock, doubt, and maybe a smidgen of fear. Then after Dena grabbed her at the bottom of the slide she let out the tiniest little whine and the biggest bottom lip. After that she was pretty content to sit on mommy's lap.

As I was telling mom about it she laughed and said, "Sometimes what we think we want so badly doesn't end up being as great as we think it is." True that, momma! How many times have I've been certain about God's will in any given area of my life only to find out what I thought was it, was most definitely not it? How often do we fight God for something? I look back on everything I was told "no" to before finally hearing a "yes" from God with so much gratitude. What God had planned is turning out to be so much better than I ever could've planned...

God knows what He's doing. Its hard to remember sometimes but just like I could've saved Corrinne the terror of flying down a slide way too big for her, God wants to protect us from enduring unnecessary fear and pain. And a face full of water.

Or that horrible wedgie you get from the serious water slides. ;)

Oh, Corrinne!

It was like a scene out of Hannah Montana! I walked into her room this morning to find her standing in her crib with one arm at her side, the other on the crib railing. She was shaking her bootie and singing at the top of her lungs!

She's not even a year old, folks! What are we going to do when she's 13?!!

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child

This time last year I was great with child - 38 weeks pregnant, to be exact - and the recipient of many an unsolicited comment about how full my hands were about to be. 12 months later I'm realizing what those women meant.

Over the last few weeks Corrinne's personality has really come to the surface. While Cash is timid, cautious, and tender-hearted; Corrinne is adventurous, sneaky, and strong-willed. She knows what she wants when she wants it and has recently acquired a shriek that could be heard within a 20 mile radius. Thanks to having an older brother she is fully versed in how to handle the "No- No" situations. She simply yells back at us, "Nooooooo!" and shrieks. Even though she is not old enough to get the spanking her behavior sometimes deserves we are sticking with age-appropriate hand-smack. This evening I smacked her chubby little hand for telling me no and could not believe what happened next...

First she gave me a look of shock (score 1 for mom!), rubbed her hand I had smacked (Aw, man! Mommy guilt set in), then walked over and smacked my hand right back! (WHAT?!)

Clearly this calls for an emergency reading of James Dobson's, The Strong-Willed Child.

Big Mama's House

Ever since the 12 hour car ride in Mamaw & Papaw's car on our way home from vacation Cash has been all about big things, thanks to my mom pointing out the semis. BIG cars, BIG trucks, BIG french fries...you get it. All was well until yesterday I heard him say, "BIG Mama!".

Excuse me?

Unfortunately my ears had not failed me. I am now grouped into the BIG category. Along with trucks, blocks, cows, horses, boats, etc. Awesome.

For all those times I said, "My kids will never..."

Life has been a whirlwind since we got back from vacation oh, THREE WEEKS AGO! Yikes. To say its been hard to get back into the swing of things is a major understatement. We returned home from the beautiful and blissful Atlantic Beach in North Carolina just in time for Drew to start his new position at a new location two days later. New title, new commute, new schedule, new co-workers. We're all adjusting, but he's loving it and we're so proud of him so who's complaining, right? :)

Fast forward to 8:00 this morning when Corrinne is beckoning me via the monitor because apparently she still hasn't caught on to the fact that everyone else in the house likes to sleep till 9 am. I'm sure a few of you are thinking wish I could sleep in till 8 every day and I do realize how lucky I am HOWEVER this was a mere 8 hours after Drew and I got home from pretending we were kidless newlyweds while running around Kings Island all day! Momma was exhausted. That exhaustion turned into frustration when I went to get some milk out of the fridge for my cereal to realize we had none. NONE. Zero milk in the fridge of a woman whose 2 year old drinks it like its going out of style. Not good. We were pretty much out of everything (hence the "its been really hard getting back into the swing of things" intro to this post.). So I figured, the kids are getting older, Corrinne's almost 1 now; I'm sure I could make it through one grocery trip with both of them alone. No problem. Got everyone ready (including reinstalling car seats, taking 2 tubs of size 12-18 mos. girl clothes out of the back of the car -- thanks, Aunt Ashley, and putting the double stroller back in) and out the door feeling optimistic about my first trip to the grocery store with both kids alone. (Again, I know there are moms who do this all the time. But I'm not trying to be a hero or win any Super Mom awards. I like to go alone and will usually wait until Drew's home, grab something lovely to sip on while I shop and turn the mundane task of grocery shopping into "me time". Its great!) Well long story short -- my kids were the center of attention and not just because they're so darn cute. Cash was putting random items in the cart, Corrinne was trying to chew on the strap that should have been around her keeping her safely in the cart while both of them took turns screaming at me and each other. While I'm trying to gracefully discipline my kids and pay for my groceries the 19 year old cashier commented on Corrinne's dark complexion, "How did THAT happen??", how persistent she was in pushing the buttons on the credit card swipey thing, "She's determined, huh?" and then left me with this gem, "I don't know how you do it! Props to you!". Customer service at it's finest. Needless to say I will be grocery shopping alone from here on out.

In other news, my sweet little bronzed beauty learned a new word from her big brother...it begins with an N and ends with an O. Thats right. My not-quite-one-year-old told me no this morning. Not cool.

Jesus is my Homeboy

Cash is going through a very typical possessive phase right now. Everything is his, apparently. Poor Corrinne can't even crawl in his direction without him grabbing all the toys and running away while he screams, "MINE!". It gets really old really fast. But there was one instance where it was cute...

I was getting ready to lay him down for the night when he grabbed my hand and said, "Deeesus" (Jesus). So we prayed for a good night's rest and that Daddy would make it home safe from work and said amen. I laid him in his bed and looked at me and quietly said, "My deesus. Mine." I kind of chuckled and said, "Yes, he's your Jesus." and silently prayed that one day he'll understands what that means.